Age Group Ace: Reno Stirrat

In his first marathon, the 1976 Marine Corps Marathon, Reno Stirrat ran 2:44:45. In his most recent marathon, this year's Boston, the 56-year-old Boston resident clocked 2:42:27 while winning the 55-59 division. Although such records are unofficial, Stirrat is believed to be the only American to have run a sub-2:45 marathon in five separate

decades.

Being realistic, Stirrat doesn't expect to be under 2:45 when the next decade rolls around in 2020, but he hopes to be a member of the sub-3:00 club for six decades then.

While his Boston time this year was faster than his marathon debut time, it certainly wasn't his fastest. He ran 2:19:17 in the 1979 Rocket City Marathon. "But I am running faster now than I was in my early 50s," Stirrat jubilates, explaining that his marriage to his wife, Susan, also a dedicated runner, two years ago helped him refocus and train hard again.

He also credits his Whirlaway Racing Team, which includes many top masters, for keeping him motivated. "I don't get hung up on times," Stirrat says. "I stopped chasing PRs a long time ago. I just try to be competitive in my age group and with different people I know."

Stirrat began running in high school. "While playing freshman football, we would run a mile with full gear, and I always won," he recalls.

"In my sophomore year, everyone on the football team got bigger but me. I was tired of being pounded by everyone who was bigger and so I quit." He then joined the cross country team and made the varsity that year as the fifth man. He went on to become the New Jersey state sectional champion in cross country and the mile.

At Iona College, which he attended on a full track scholarship, Stirrat competed at 5,000m and 10,000m, setting a school record for freshmen in the latter in 29:52, a record which he says still stands. In addition to that 2:19:17 marathon, which qualified him for the 1980 Olympic trials marathon, Stirrat had bests in his younger years of 29:46 for 10K and 1:05:07 for the half marathon.

"The biggest way in which age has affected me is my recovery time," he says. "I need to take more time after a hard workout or race to recover. Also, I tend to eat less and do more core and other exercises."

To maintain his speed, he does a workout at least once a week that calls for six repeats of 40 seconds fast with a 40-second recovery jog after each. For upper-body strength, he does bar exercises, such as parallel bar dips and pull-ups, rather than using weights.

Stirrat's immediate goals are to improve on his recent 5K and 10K times and to run his first ultra, the JFK 50-miler in November.

"It's just a challenge, something I haven't done before," he says. "I want to be competitive but also cautious early in the race since this is my first ultra."

TRAINING PHILOSOPHY

"Train smart and race hard. Training should be at the level of current racing times, not at the racing times we want to run. In my training, the easy days are easy and the hard days are hard. Having run so many years on the track doing intervals, I have found that now it's better to do intervals on the road or bike path."